Jaded No More

Always was and always will be my all time favourite player. He could do some freaky stuff for his size and physique.

Only two are actually proven quality. That’s not a lot.

I think with Lever on board, there's no doubt TMac will be playing more time forward, and he is definitely better closer to goal. That means Jesse will play more CHF, which he is more suited to anyway, but that means increased endurance, hence the slimming down. That's just my guess.

Amazing news and a small victory for common sense and human decency, in the face of the absolute rubbish coming out of humanity recently.

Good on Pedo for coming back early. I assume he isn’t obligated to. And lovely to see Viney running! Hope that foot holds up.

Agreed. There is plenty of development left in Viney, Oliver, Gawn and Lever.

I signed up for the upgrade to finals tickets. $600 for a membership is super pricey especially as I’m moving house in the next week. But to me having the peace of mind that if we make it, I’ll be there, is worth it. I missed out in 2000 and although it was an awful game I still wish I was there. It certainly is an extreme expense and one that my partner just can’t get his head around, but if like me, you go to all games in Victoria and will be going to all/every final, it ends up being decent value for money. Regardless tho, as long as people buy the membership that best suits their financial position, that’s all that matters. Any membership helps the club!

Wonderful news. So happy for him and wish him all the best!

I passionately hate that we sell those games, and for as long as we do it, we really can't complain of who/when/how we play the week after. It is our choice to sell those games, which was good while we were garbage and needed money, but it is now costing us on the field, which is the only thing we should care about at this stage.

From a playing perspective, the draw is OK. No multiple 6 day breaks, but a block of interstate games which again, we sell some of those, so we only have ourselves to blame for that. We play GWS, Sydney, Richmond, Port and WCE once, which is not bad as I think they'll all be strong again next year. From a commercial point of view, this draw is, again, absolute rubbish. We have ONE home Friday night game and it's in goddamn Adelaide, where we will likely lose to Port. We do get to host the pre-Anzac clash this year where revenue will be high, but how they can justify giving us just 1 Friday night game, is beyond me. Only 2 Saturday night games, again both away, and a heap of rubbish Sunday 3:20 games. The deadzone! Having said all that, if we are good enough, we can make finals this year and it is in our hands. Sick of excuses to be honest.

No issues with that. Home game on our home ground. A great way to start the season and test ourselves. Will be a huge turnout. Very happy.

He’s currently in one of the most spectacular parts of the world according to Insta. He needs to enjoy it before the drab Burgo interviews start coming his way.

Wrong forum... think you’re looking for the Collingwood site

The amount of pathetic handwringing in this thread is laughable. Go follow North if you want your club to never make any trades.

I hear this every year, yet our record indicates that we can pick up handy players later in the draft (see Hunt, Omac / Tmac, Hannan etc).

Exactly. Not only is he the best player traded, he is also the one with the highest ceiling at 21 and doesn't come with a bag of personal off field issues! I'm confident we will get back into the 1st round of the draft next year, if we strongly believe we need to. Imagine how North fans (sorry, fan), must feel.

Great outcome given retirement is never an easy decision for a player, and well done to Garland on his career! Always one of my favourites, gave his all and got the most out of himself. Wishing him the best in the next part of his career and glad he is sticking around the club doing something he is clearly passionate about!

Low risk trade, if it works fantastic, if it doesn't, well we took the same punt as we would be had we taken pick 66 to the draft. Nice move given we have so many mid range picks this year we can't even use them all. Welcome Harley and best of luck!

I loved reading Watts' post this morning thanking everyone, and likewise I was happy to see the club put a thank you on their website. At the end of the day this was a ruthless decision that the club felt it needed to make for the overall betterment of the club and the playing list. While it is hard to swallow when you lose a fan favourite, I truly believe it is the best thing for the club, and even for Watts. While Watts no doubt loves the club and his mates, he could probably use a change of scenery and moving away from that fishbowl that is Melbourne. Perhaps less pressure on him and less scrutiny might help him get the best out of himself, something he never did in 9 years at our club. We all wish him the best, but at the end of the day I want to play finals and I want to win a premiership. I am sick of our lack of success, and so is everyone else. There is no doubt we missed on finals this year because we were mentally lacking, not because we lacked talent to get there. Hell you could argue that the eventual premiers don't look much better on paper than we do. Watts is the last of the remaining senior players from our losing era who doesn't seem to have brought in to the culture change, and the FD decided it was time to stop letting those types of half-arsed standards be set. It is hard to ask young players to go at 110% when some of the senior players don't. Lets move on from this and look to the future. Our list is better off with Lever than it was 2 months ago, and we are in a good position to make a serious go at finals in 2018, maybe even top 4. I wish Jack nothing but the best, but I am a Melbourne supporter first and always. My loyalties are with the club, and I will back them on this decision, unless I see serious evidence to the contrary.

If that is honestly what you think, then I'm sorry but there is no point discussing this further. Lever is already a better player than Watts ever was, at 6 years his junior. His bravery, his contested marking and his reading of the ball is elite. Those are things we've been crying out for, not just from Watts, but from our team. We got absolutely destroyed in contested marking this year, and Lever fixes that almost immediately. He also allows Tom McDonald to play forward/ruck. Watts is a nice player with very high kicking skills, but poor defensive skills and extremely poor contested marking for someone of his height. I've always liked him, and I truly wish him nothing but the best and I truly hope he flourishes at Port. But for god's sake, lets not go crazy here. Lever is already a better player, and his ceiling is twice as high and twice as long as Watts'.

Also for all those crying for Jack, aren't you glad that once he announced he wanted to go to Port that Melbourne did the right thing by him and got it done? Would a stand off until 4:59pm on Thursday made everyone happier? At the end of the day we did right by Watts getting the deal he wanted done, and we still have 2 days to try and swap picks or complete other trades.

Because we landed the best player who happens to be 21 and has 10+ AA years in him. Please lets not lose sight of the fact that at the end of the day we have significantly improved our list by adding Lever. Does anyone here really think we can't win a flag without Watts?

Lets not start this again. We don't trade him, he spends the year in and out of the side, he is worth pick 50 next year.

We have not been robbed, Lever was a good trade. He is literally the only quality player who has been traded thus far and we landed him! I agree that pick 31 for Watts who we invested 9 years into, is a poor outcome. But I trust the club has other plans, and to be honest I don't see the point of fighting the trade when it is clearly us who wanted him gone. Would be a super dick move to say 'go look for a new home, but oh wait we don't want to trade you where you want to go because they won't give us a good pick for you, when really you aren't that great which is why we want you gone in the first place'. I know this is a very divisive trade that will upset a lot of people, but at the end of the day Watts has brought this on himself. We all wanted and needed him to change, and he hasn't. His talent is not lacking, but his attitude clearly is not what the club is expecting from a senior player. It is time to move on. We got Lever, a 21 year old gun who fills a real gap on our list and pushes us closer to success, so at the end of the day we win the trade period.

Can we stop this Hogan nonsense now?!